Tom’s Turn
This is a busy time of year for United Methodists. The quadrennial General
Conference began on April 23rd. It is being held in Fort Worth, Texas, and continues through May 2nd. For those of you who are unaware, the General Conference is the one body in the United Methodist Church that speaks for the denomination. Delegates are elected from all around the globe, and vote on issues ranging from a to z. You can follow the General Conference activities and votes by going to the official General Conference website by typing United Methodist General Conference into Google. From this website, you can follow any legislation you are interested in, read about highlights for the day, watch live streaming video of the proceeds, and even see what a typical day is like for General Conference delegates.
I was struck by the schedule these delegates keep. For two weeks, their day at
Conference begins at 8 a.m. with worship. They meet throughout the morning until about lunch which is served at 12:30 p.m. If you want to, you can skip lunch in order to partake in Communion. Conference then reconvenes at 2:30 p.m. (it takes a long time to feed 992 delegates). Once the Conference reconvenes, the delegates meet until dinner at 5 p.m., with short breaks sprinkled in here and there. But then they come back again at 7:30 p.m. and meet in plenary sessions until 11 p.m. This is a typical schedule for a day at General Conference. I get tired just thinking about it.
But this body has a lot of work to do. This is the body within the United Methodist Church that revises the Book of Discipline, which regulates the manner in which
local churches, annual conferences and general agencies are organized. Delegates also revise the Book of Resolutions, a volume declaring the church’s stance on a wide variety of social justice issues. The book contains more than 300 resolutions that are considered instructive and persuasive, but are not binding on members.
The General Conference usually garners some press, especially when they vote on controversial issues such as homosexuality and abortion. The United Methodist Church has specific stands on almost every issue imaginable, and yet there is always room for disagreement. There is, for example, a wide range of opinions on the issue of homosexuality. The delegation from our Conference, the Pacific
Northwest Conference, is typically more liberal on social issues. They will be speaking in favor of legislation that we, as an Annual Conference, forwarded to General Conference last June. But it is unlikely that the General Conference stance on the issue of homosexuality will change. Our delegation, along with a couple of other delegations, tends to be a small, vocal minority within the Church. I am sure they will do everything they can to get their voices heard.
What happens at General Conference truly affects us here at Centralia First United Methodist Church. I want to encourage you to keep up with the events of General Conference. This General Conference will set the course for the denomination for the next four years. And then, in 2012, we do it all over again.
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